Cabinet to be targeted with pro-FTTP ads

Crowdfunded campaigners to reveal next phase of cunning plan soon

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With $AUD44,513 in the crowdfunded kitty, the campaigners who plan to buy ads in Australian Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull's local newspaper are now planning a wider assault on politicians' eyeballs.

As we reported yesterday, folks involved in the change.org petition urging Australia's newly-elected government to repent on its policy of building a fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) national broadband network (NBN) instead of proceeding with the current fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) plan branched out into a crowdfunding campaign that initially aimed to buy an ad in The Wentworth Courier, the local newspaper most likely to be tossed over the fence chez Turnbull.

That campaign handily passed its $15,000 target, meaning it has more than enough cash to buy an ad in the Courier. Alex Stewart, one of the campaigners behind the effort, told The Reg plans are therefore being hatched to spend the extra cash on ads that will run in electorates where other cabinet ministers reside, the better to demonstrate grass roots support for the position that FTTN is inferior to FTTP and will likely require overbuild.

“We don't see ourselves as activists,” Stewart said. “We see ourselves as a representation of the Australian community who want future-proof internet.”

Stewart also said the team running both the petition and the crowdfunding effort will soon detail other lobbying efforts, with signatories to the petition to receive emails outlining those plans.

That The Wentworth Courier is owned by News Corporation, an irony Stewart appreciates given Rupert Murdoch's local organs have been fierce critics of the NBN's aims and implementation. The Reg has asked News if it will accept the campaigners' and will report on any response we receive. ®